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Sometimes it's important to stand out in the crowd, and when your crowd is as huge as a penguin colony, it's vital. "Penguin parents take it in turns to look after the egg and chick, so that the other can go off and find food," says animal behaviour expert Jonathan Wright. "When they return, each has a very specific individual call so they can find their way back among the thousands and thousands of other penguins."

This is a modern family, where childcare is shared (they even have crèches for their chicks), and where both parents are equally good at going off to work. Penguins, therefore, have achieved an excellent level of work/life balance. Childcare is mixed with having some fun and they simply love their work.

The day job of being underwater foraging for food is where a penguin comes into its own, swimming with a skill and élan you simply wouldn't guess from seeing the same bird on land. A penguin is the very essence of looks being deceptive. Like the chap who lives down the street, who has no flash car, no bling watch. You just see him with his family, taking his kids to the park, bringing the shopping in from the car, dressed in a way indistinguishable from thousands of others. But see him at work and he's jaw-droppingly, unbelievably brilliant at what he does. And he loves it. In many ways it would be a better world if we all unleashed our inner penguin.

What penguins can teach us: The best employees aren't necessarily the ones who shout the loudest about their achievements. Check for penguins in your business — and hold on to them.

2. The Grizzly Bear

A lone hunter of ferocious strength, the grizzly is actually less harmful than he appears and normally doesn't go out of his way to be aggressive to humans unless provoked. 
But it's all about that reputation. Say 
the words ‘grizzly bear' to someone and they immediately picture 
a fearsome predator who will rip them to bits given half a chance. People tend not 
to get in the way of a grizzly bear. Sometimes the reality of you doesn't matter, it's what people think of you that counts.

"Adaptability is also 
the key here," says our expert. "The habitat of brown bears generally is expanding as the polar bear's diminishes, because the brown bear is simply more adaptable to changes 
in the environment, due to its varied diet. If a polar bear can't find its food source — animal protein — it dies. A brown bear just eats something else."

In other words, locking your brand in too tightly can be detrimental in hard times. You need to be flexible. And you also need to be able to react quickly. Contrary to popular opinion, grizzly bears don't 
truly hibernate. They go into a semi-hibernation state from which they can awake very quickly and immediately spring into action.

"The equivalent person to a grizzly," says our expert, "is someone who you can give any task to and they'll just get on and do it. They won't form a committee, they'll adapt to techniques that need to be used and get it done. This is a great all-rounder who gets things done and is extremely dependable, but is often not very good socially. And at times when there's no work to do they just go to sleep."

What grizzly bears can teach us: Reputation can take you a long way. Adaptability is key to successful growth. A ‘grizzly' on your team, in an out of office role, will be super-efficient and require minimal management.

3.The Termite

You think the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, at 828m, is tall? It's but a molehill compared to the largest termite mounds, which have been known to be up to 9m tall. Given that a termite is around half a centimetre long, that equates to a Burj tower well over 3,000m high.

The reason termites can build such astonishing structures is down to their organisation. Termite society is utterly rigid and whatever job you're born into is yours for life - no need to worry about being made redundant or not getting that promotion. Termite societies are vast and ordered and operate as a well-oiled machine. With the royalty at the top, the workers making food for everybody and the armoured soldiers standing ready 
to repel an ant invasion, termites have built a system where everyone knows their place and everything is done for the greater good of the colony.

"Not only do termites in a mound protect the king and queen," says our expert, "they also protect one another. They almost act like a single super-organism. These are complex societies with every individual having an important role. There's no such thing as a lazy termite. In the case of bees, there are clones whose only function is to mate with the queen. After they've done that they are killed by the workers because they would be a drain on resources. The equivalent would be people in offices and no one really knows what they do, so they're got rid of."

HR can't recommend an actual cull, luckily, but weeding out the workshy and running at optimum efficiency is something we'd all aim for. 
A business where everyone involved knows what they have to do every day to achieve a common goal (and no one ever throws a sickie) is one that can build great things.

What termites can teach us: Large organisations need to work as one, and this means clear leadership and a focused and well-defined sense of purpose. There's no room for dead wood.

4. The Sheep

"Sheep are a lot more intelligent than previously thought," says our expert. "Flocking behaviour is advantageous, protecting them against predators. If you have a flock of 100 sheep, one might be eaten by a predator. If you're on your own, it's pretty much a dead certainty the predator will get you. So flocking reduces the chance of you being a meal." 
The sheep's business model, like an old mutual building society, is safety in numbers. The more of them there are, the more they spread the risk between members of the flock.

Sheep also know how to avoid being eaten, by getting away quickly from the first sign of trouble to places where the trouble can't follow. "Sheep basically walk on tiptoes," says our expert. "In the wild they can pick out paths in mountains where predators just can't follow. So they just avoid conflict as much as possible." The flock is also very attuned to the prevailing conditions, blessed as they are with excellent hearing and peripheral vision. A business where every colleague has eyes and ears constantly on the watch for changes in the market is best placed to avoid the crises that can befall others.

What sheep can teach us: Judge things on the evidence, not on received wisdom, or you might be underestimating the opposition. Spreading risk will see you through uncertain times.

5 The Wolf

The wolf pack is the ultimate family firm, seeking out other companies bigger but less able to defend themselves, for the most hostile of hostile takeovers. The wolf is top of the heap in its own environment, sitting calmly in charge of its local food chain. The leaders provide training for the young and every member of the pack performs at the top level when there's work to be done. This is a company with a small workforce but one in which everybody has a vital role in the success of the venture, rather than a sprawling herd organisation where there's plenty of room for slackers.

"The wolf is one of the few monogamous mammals, and so the pack unit is a family," says our expert. "The pack structure is such that when they are attacking an animal, they do it in a relay, so when one wolf gets tired, another takes over. And individual wolves have great stamina anyway, so a pack can bring down a much larger mammal by eventually tiring it out."

Wolf packs show teamwork at its best, proving that where the individual can't do the job on his own, a few with finely honed skills, who know each other's strengths and weaknesses inside out, can be the lords of their environment. Top dogs, indeed.

What wolves can teach us Small, mobile and hungry makes for efficient teams and companies that are able to take on much bigger competitors.

6.The Dolphin

Everybody loves a dolphin because they always look as if they're having fun. All that cute clicking and their anthropomorphic grinning little faces tell us humans that they're cool, fun and smart. Now, we're not suggesting that clicking your way round the office is a good way to get noticed (you will get noticed, just not in a good way) but being happy in your job is not only good for you, it makes other people (such as customers) happy too.

Communication is the key. "Dolphins are very sophisticated at finding food and communicating that to other members of the pod," says our expert. "Sometimes it will be something they can catch on their own and at other times they might ask for help."

Dolphins are also the charity workers of the animal kingdom. They care for sick members of the pod and 
have also been known to try to lead beached whales back out to sea and protect humans from shark attack. But even in the charity world it's not all smiles and good deeds. Says our expert: "Dolphins do sometimes have a mean streak and they have been known to bully porpoises." Never mind, if you have PR as good as the dolphins', no one will take any notice of a few minor transgressions...

What dolphins can teach us: Easy, open, regular communication makes for a happier working environment — which in turn creates a more productive and successful one.